Operation Gadget is continuing to get a lot of traffic and comments about the Garmin Forerunner 201 fitness gadget, so I thought I’d do a bit of an update. According to the Garmin website, the Logbook software will be available in February 2004. Back at the beginning of December, I reported that the software was slated for “early January 2004” release. I continue to suggest that gadgets like the Forerunner are a lot more useful if they can upload data to a training log that is maitained on a personal computer.
My wife and I were browsing in the Eastern Mountain Sports store in West Windsor, NJ on Friday night, and I got to see a Forerunner 201 again. Everytime I pick one of these things up, I am struck by how large and heavy it is relative to other fitness measurement gadgets like the Fitsense FS-1 Speedometer and the Nike Triax Elite. Granted, the Forerunner 201 is a one piece unit, so you wear everything you need on your wrist, while the other two that I mentioned have “footpods” that attach to one of your shoes. But in my experience using devices like these, I most often notice the size and weight of the thing that I wear on your wrist. The size and weight of devices that attach to my waist, arm, or shoetop are a lot less noticeable.
In light of the positive user comments about the Forerunner that have come my way, I’d say that there’s definitely a group of people who are going to like this product a lot if they give it a try. But, I have questions for the Forerunner 201 users out there, if anyone would care to answer them:
- Before you purchased your Forerunner 201, did you visit a store where you could see and possibly try-out the Forerunner, or did you buy it solely on the basis of product reviews?
- Have you ever used any fitness measurement gadgets other than the Forerunner? If so, what is it about the Forerunner that makes it the thing you wear on your wrist when you are out for a run?